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Music 451A

Mon, Wed 11:30 PM – 1:20 PM
CCRMA (The Knoll) –Neuromusic Lab (Room 103)
Instructor
Takako Fujioka (takako@ccrma.stanford.edu)
Office hour by appointment
Course Description
The sound that comes into ears is transformed to electrical neuronal signals in the cochlea, then transmitted to and
processed in the brain via the central auditory pathway. In humans, the auditory system starts developing in utero and
further matures into a highly sophisticated machinery with learning experience across the lifespan. The system, with its
excellent spectral and temporal resolution, allows us recognizing speech and enjoy music. Not only sending sound
information up to the brain one-way, but the system also deals with cross-modal integration, attention, memory, action, and
emotion, connected to sounds.
This course is aimed at giving an overview of cognitive neuroscience regarding auditory and music perception and
cognition, specialized in electroencephalography (EEG) techniques and paradigms. The questions we ask are: How do we
capture auditory processes happening in the order of milliseconds using EEG? What kind of brain responses are known
related to what aspects of speech and music?
We will approach these questions with seminar and laboratory work. The seminar will discuss experimental design, data
analysis, interpretation, writing tips for scientific reports and research proposals, and how to give constructive criticism to
others’ work. This includes related literature in neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropsychology, and brain-computer
interface. Laboratory focuses on electroencephalography (EEG) techniques, classic paradigms for recording the evoked
response, and associated data analysis methods.
The course is for students who are new to EEG technique and paradigms, but familiar or willing to learn introductory
cognitive neuroscience related to auditory and music perception/cognition. Through the three lab exercises, students will
become able to run EEG recordings safely and accurately independently. In the final project, students are invited to design
an original experiment and execute data collection and analysis, then write the report with interpretation. Students will also
become familiar with lab equipment operation, data analysis, and programming in MATLAB environment. However,
extensive programming experience is not required.